Blade guards for safety razors



Aug. 15, 1967 e. 5. WILSON BLADE GUARDS FOR SAFETY RAZORS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 15, 1965 FIG. 3

m1 Ra w m m ms m WE n I M m 1967 G. 5. WILSON 3,335,491

BLADE GUARDS FOR SAFETY RAZORS Filed July 15, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG 7 INVENTOR. 6502612 5. WILSON BY 41%.

M M I A TZ'ORNEKS' United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A blade guard adapted to be used in a safety razor for protecting the operator from the free ends of the razor blade and for facilitating manipulations which must be carried out with respect to the razor blade. This blade guard has an elongated wall which is adapted to extend along one face of the blade when situated together with the blade in a safety razor. This wall of the blade guard is formed with a substantially centrally situated longitudinally extending slot to accommodate structure of the safety razor. The latter wall of the blade guard has a length somewhat greater than that of a razor blade so that the ends of this wall respectively extend beyond the ends of a blade. A pair of flanges are integrally formed with this guard wall and project substantially perpendicularly in the same direction therefrom to define between themselves a space in which a razor blade can be accommodated with the free ends of the razor blade directed toward and covered by these flanges. In this way the flanges of the blade guard will, during use of the razor, protect the user from contact with the ends of the razor blade.

The present invention relates to shaving implements.

More particularly, the present invention relates to safety razors.

As is well known, safety razors employ interchangeable cutting blades which must be replaced when they become dull. These removable blades of the safety razors have ends which project laterally beyond the part of the safety razor which receives the cutting blade. Because of the relatively thin metal from which the blade is conventionally made, these ends of the cutting blade, which are conventionally exposed and which conventionally project laterally beyond the confines of the razor, can inflict considerable injury on the operator and render manipulation of the blade a dangerous operation which must be very carefully carried out.

It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide for a safety razor a structure which will protect the operator from the exposed ends of the blade.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to achieve this result without in any way modifying the safety razor or the blade, so that conventional safety razors and blades can be used with the invention.

The objects of the present invention include the provision of an insert which forms a blade guard and which can be inserted together with the blade into the safety razor, the blade guard of the invention protecting the operator from the ends of the blade which normally would extend beyond the confines of the safety razor itself.

In addition, it is an object of the invention to provide a blade guard which is extremely inexpensive to manufacture, which is quite simple in its structure, and which is very easy to use.

In particular, the blade guard of the invention has an elongated wall which is adapted to extend along one face of a razor blade and which has a length somewhat greater than that of the razor blade so that the ends of this enlongated wall will project beyond the free ends of the razor blade. At its ends this elongated wall of 3,335,491 Patented Aug. 15, 1967 the blade guard of the invention carries a pair of flanges which project perpendicularly from the wall across the free ends of the blade so that these flanges protect the operator against contact with the free ends of the razor blade.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of the application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a safety razor provided with the guard of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view of the upper part of the safety razor on an enlarged scale, as compared to FIG. 1, taken along line 22 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows and showing how the guard of the invention is situated in the interior of the safety razor;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section, also on an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1', illustrating the details of the structure at the upper part of the safety razor and showing in particular how the guard of the invention is situated within the safety razor;

FIG. 4 is to a top plan view of one possible embodiment of a blade guard according to the invention, the particular blade guard of FIG. 4 being that used with the safety razor of FIGS. 1-3;

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional elevation showing the upper part of another type of safety razor which may be accommodated with a blade guard of the invention and shown with a blade guard of the invention situated therein;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the blade guard used in the razor of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation of the and FIG. 8 is a transverse section of the blade guard of FIGS. 6 and 7 taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 6 in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to FIGS. 1-4, there is shown, particularly in FIG. 1, a conventional safety razor 10 having a manually turnable part 12 situated at the bottom end of its handle 14. It is this part 12 which is turned by the operator to open and close the safety razor 10. As may be seen from FIG. 3 the safety razor includes a vertically displaceable post 16 which moves up and down in response to turning of the part 12, and this post 16 carries an elongated wall 18 which extends in a generally vertical direction, as is apparent from FIGS. 2. and 3.

This wall 18 which thus moves up and down with the post 16 has a pair of end portions 20 (FIG. 3) which respectively fixedly carry transversely extending members 22, and it is these members 22 which carry the closure flaps 24 which are closed and opened during manipulation of the part 12. These flaps 24 which are respectively situated on opposite sides of the vertical wall 18 have depending portions 26 which are pivotally connected at 28 to the transverse members 22 which are carried by the end portions 20 of the vertical wall 18.

Referring now to FIG. 3, it will be seen that there is fixedly mounted on the top end of the stationary part 30 of the handle 14 a support member 32 having the configuration of an elongated channel member, and this support member 32 fixedly carries a horizontal wall 34 which serves as a support for the blade and which has in cross section the configuration shown most clearly in FIG. 2. In particular the elongated channel member 32 has upstanding walls 36 which extend into openings of the supporting wall 34 and which are fixed to the supporting wall 34 so as to carry the latter in the manner shown in FIG. 2. At its longitudinal free edges the supporting wall 34 has downwardly depending flanges 38.

The depending portions 26 of the turntable flaps 24 have free end portions 40 which are adapted to move upwardly along the inner surfaces of the flanges 38 during blade guard of FIG. 6;

raising of the post 16, and these free ends 40* will engage the parts 42 of the wall 34 so as to cause the flaps 24 to turn outwardly away from each other to open the safety razor when the post 16 together with the wall 18 are moved upwardly. At this time, which is to say with the flaps 24 in their open position, it is possible to remove and replace a blade, and then the parts are turned back down to the position shown in FIG. 1 where the outer free edges of the flaps 24 engage the upper surface of the blade 44, as shown most clearly in FIG. 2, so as to press the blade downwardly against the upper free edges of the side walls 36 of the supporting channel 32.

All of the above-described structure is conventional. As may be seen from FIG. 3, when the blade 44 is situated within the safety razor the free ends 46 of the blade project beyond the confines of the safety razor. Because of the relative thinness of the metal of the blade 44, its free ends 46 are quite dangerous and during careless use of the safety razor can inflict injury on the operator. It is primarily to avoid this latter drawback that the structure of the present invention is provided.

Referring now to FIG. 4, it will be seen that the present invention includes a blade guard 48 made of a suitable synthetic resin which is quite inexpensive and which is flexible, and any of the well known freely available inexpensive plastics such as polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polyethylene, or the like may be used for the blade guard 48 of the invention.

The blade guard 48 has an elongated wall 50 which is adapted to extend along one face of the blade 44, and in the illustrated example it is shown as extending along the lower face of the blade 44, with the wall 50' resting directly on the supporting wall 34 of the safety razor.

As may be seen particularly from FIG. 3, the length of the wall 50 is somewhat greater than the length of the blade 44, so that the free ends of the wall 50 project beyond the ends 46 of the blade, and at its free ends this wall 50 integrally carries flanges 56 which project perpendicularly from the wall 50 in the manner shown most clearly in FIG. 3. In the illustrated example these flanges 56 of course project upwardly and they both extend in one and the same direction from the elongated wall 50. In addition these flanges 56 are formed integrally with the wall 50, so that the guard 48 of the invention is a simple, inexpensive, one-piece member made of a suitable plastic material, for example.

As is apparent from FIG. 4, the wall 50 of the guard 48 is formed with a substantially centrally located longitudinally extending slot 54 for accommodating structure of the safety razor. With the particular razor shown in FIGS. 1-3, it is the vertical wall 18 which extends through the slot 54. Also, the upper end of the post 16 can be accommodated in the slot 54.

During use of the structure of the invention, when the safety razor is in its open position the operator can first introduce the guard into the razor and can then drop the blade onto the razor with the blade ends 46 confined between the flanges 56 so that they cannot injure the operator. Then, when removing the blade 46 the operator may grasp the end flanges 56 to remove the entire guard 48 together with the blade 46, so that in this way the manipulations in connection with the operation of the safety razor are also facilitated with the structure of the invention, so that the guard of the invention not only is of advantage from the standpoint of safety but also is of advantage from the standpoint of manipulations which must be performed in connection with the razor.

However, it may be desired to leave the guard more or less permanently within the razor, and for this purpose the elongated interior edges of the wall 50 which define the slot 54 are respectively formed with a pair of flexible protrusions 58 which extend toward each other. The upper end of the post 16 of the razor is conventionally provided with a pair of opposed depressions 60, and advantage is taken of these depressions 60 to releasably connect the blade guard to the razor. Thus, the flexible springy protrusions 58 will snap into the pair of opposed depressions 60 which are present in any event on the razor, and thus a releasable connection will be provided between the guard 48 and the razor. Therefore, with the structure of the invention it the operator so desires he may simply leave the guard permanently within the razor to which it will remain attached by the engagement of the protrusions 58 in the recesses 60. On the other hand, should the operator so desire he may at any time displace the guard 48 from the razor which requires only a force great enough to deflect the protrusions 58 out of the recesses 60, and with this mode of operation it is possible for the operator to remove the guard at any time such as at times when a blade is being removed and replaced.

FIG. 5 shows a safety razor which is conventional but of a somewhat different type from that shown in FIGS. 13, as is apparent from a comparison of FIGS. 2 and 5 both of which show the safety razors in transverse sections at their upper portions. The safety razor 62 shown in FIG. 5 however operates on substantially the same principle as that of FIGS. 1-3 and includes the stationary supporting structure 64 and 66 which is substantially identical with the supporting structure 32 and 34 of FIG. 2. The closure flaps 68 are pivotally mounted and actuated in much the same way as in the razor of FIGS. 1-3 and during manipulation of the turnable part of the handle of the safety razor the central interior structure 70 thereof will move up and down to turn the flaps between their closed and opened positions. This central structure 70 includes an elongated vertical wall and a central post member.

The blade guard 72 adapted to be used with the razor 62 is shown in FIG. 6, and it is apparent that this blade guard while similar in all important respects with the guard 48 nevertheless has been adapted to the particular details of the razor 62. Thus, with this razor the elongated wall 74 of the blade guard 72 need only have a simple elongated slot 76 centnally situated of and extending longitudinally of the wall 74. At its center the slot 76 is only provided with an enlargement 80 for accommodating the central post of the safety razor.

The wall 74 of course is somewhat longer than the blade and is provided at its ends with the flange 82 which will cover the ends of the blade so as to protect the operator therefrom in the manner described above. As is apparent particularly from FIG. 7, these end flanges 82 taper so that at their free curved edges 84 they are of a thickness less than in the region of the wall 74, so that in this way a very secure connection of the flanges to the wall 74 is provided.

As may be seen from FIG. 8 in particular, the free edges 84 are optionally provided with a. central notch or reduced section 86 for enhanced flexibility.

This guard 72 can of course be used in the same way as the guard 48, and the end flanges 82 will of course on the one hand protect the operator from the free ends of the blade 88 while at the same time facilitating manipulations in connection with removal and replacing of blade 88, as described above in connection with FIGS. 1-4.

What is claimed is:

1. A blade guard adapted to be used in a safety razor for protecting the operator from the free ends of the razor blade and for facilitating manipulations which must be carried out with respect to the razor blade, comprising an elongated wall adapted to extend along one face of the blade when situated together with the latter in a safety razor, said wall being formed with a substantially cent-rally situated longitudinally extending slot for accommodating structure of the safety razor, and said Wall having a length somewhat greater than that of a razor blade so that ends of said wall respectively extend beyond the ends of a blade, and a pair of flanges integrally formed with said wall and projecting substantially perpendicularly in the same direction from said wall to define between themselves a space in which a razor blade can be accommodated with the free ends of the razor blade directed toward and covered by said flanges so that said flanges will, during use of the safety razor, protect the user from contact with the ends of the razor blade.

2. A blade guard as recited in claim 1 and wherein said wall has a pair of elongated edges extending along and defining the opposite sides of said slot and said edges being respectively provided with flexible protrusions for gripping part of the safety razor structure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,574,793 3/1926 Cohen 30-7E 1,931,743 10/1933 Shoemaker.

1,963,649 6/1934 Shadwick.

2,047,608 7/1936 Adams 30-6C 2,125,502 8/ 1938 Holtzman.

2,366,599 1/1945 Curry 3034 3,079,685 3/1963 Scully 30-79 FOREIGN PATENTS 541,751 6/1957 Canada. 632,687 10/ 1927 France.

162,336 2/1958 Sweden.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner. M. KRUSE, Examiner. 

1. A BLADE GUARD ADAPTED TO BE USED IN A SAFETY RAZOR FOR PROTECTING THE OPERATOR FROM THE FREE ENDS OF THE RAZOR BLADE AND FOR FACILITATING MANIPULATIONS WHICH MUST BE CARRIED OUT WITH RESPECT TO THE RAZOR BLADE, COMPRISING AN ELONGATED WALL ADAPTED TO EXTEND ALONG ONE FACE OF THE BLADE WHEN SITUATED TOGETHER WITH THE LATTER IN A SAFETY RAZOR, SAID WALL BEING FORMED WITH A SUBSTANTIALLY CENTRALLY SITUATED LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING SLOT FOR ACCOMMODATING STRUCTURE OF THE SAFETY RAZOR, AND SAID WALL HAVING A LENGTH SOMEWHAT GREATER THAN THAT OF A RAZOR BLADE SO THAT ENDS OF SAID WALL RESPECTIVELY EXTEND BEYOND THE ENDS OF A BLADE, AND A PAIR OF FLANGES INTEGRALLY FORMED WITH SAID WALL AND PROJECTING SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULARLY IN THE SAME DIRECTION FROM SAID WALL TO DEFINE BETWEEN THEMSELVES A SPACE IN WHICH A RAZOR BLADE CAN BE ACCOMMODATED WITH THE FREE ENDS OF THE RAZOR BLADE DIRECTED TOWARD AND COVERED BY SAID FLANGES SO THAT SAID FLANGES WILL, DURING USE OF THE SAFETY RAZOR, PROTECT THE USER FROM CONTACT WITH THE ENDS OF THE RAZOR BLADE. 